A/N: Really weird shit going on over here.

I was never good with names. Perhaps it'd be better to have said "it", instead of "him". Perhaps it was a she. I'll never know. I do know, however, that it was naked. The blade of Kusanagi. The glint of steel makes my eyes close again. I swallow. My mouth is dry. So is my throat. I open my eyes again; we're alone. Kusanagi, Orochimaru, and me. The room appears to be different, too. The walls are still wet and slimy, and the stench reeks of... death. Skin is littered on the ground. Give the man the benefit of the doubt. It's not human skin. It's snake skin. I pause in my thinking. Maybe... it's his snake skin. I look at him. He looks back at me. He licks his lips. Holy, that's a fucking long tongue. Licks his lips? That's an understatement. That pink little shit can lick his goddamn nipples if he wanted them to.

"You're awake."

I look around me. "So I am," I reply dryly. "So are you." I'm sitting in some kind of chair. My back hurts. My arms and legs seem to be tied down by chakra.

"I imagine you have many questions."

"None." I have so many questions.

He licks his lips. "Then I imagine you won't mind what happens to your subordinates, yes?" He snaps his fingers. Rabbit drops from somewhere in the ceiling. There's a large bloody "X" across his chest. He isn't breathing. I think he's dead.

I grunt at him. "You speak as if you haven't killed him yet."

"Hn. Death is merely the start of immortality." He prods at the corpse on the ground with his foot. He nods thoughtfully. "Sometimes, however, death just means you die." He smiles. He walks over to me, lifts my chin up with the tip of his sword. Licks his lips again.

"Let's try this again. Do you have any questions?" Silk. That's the word I was looking for. The smooth, slick bastard probably killed everyone already.

"Are they dead?" Kami, my lips are parched.

He cooes at me. "Is the ANBU Captain worried about his team?" The blade pushes my chin up more. He snaps again. Yugao topples from somewhere in the wall. I grimace. Her body is severed in half. The sword drops. He sits down on her head.

His nose wrinkles up, as if something unpleasant was stuffed on his upper lip. "This one," he says, eyeing Yugao cautiously, "tried to kill my snake. I asked her to pet it, but apparently you ANBU don't undergo language training. So, I had to kill her."

"Death is the start of immortality." I mimic him. Fuck it, I'm as good as dead.

This is unexpected. He grins at me. Licks his lips again. "Good, good..." he looks at me. Great, I just earned an invitation to pet his snake. "You're learning."

"The last one," he says, standing up, "requires some blood to bring out." He looks at me casually. "Want to try it?" Without warning, the blade sinks into my thigh. I bare my teeth and hiss. He's fast. Much faster than I expected. He flicks the blood into the ground, draws some kind of summoning jutsu. Smacks his pale hand on the ground. Flings out Fox. I'm horrified.

He's not dead.

I wish he is.

He has no arms.

Well, he does.

Rather, he has no arms attached to his shoulderblades. Instead, he has one bloody arm - I can't tell if it's the right or the left one - protruding from his rear. The other one is gone. His legs are bent 180 degrees. His mouth has some sickly looking liquid in it. It's dripping. Tap, tap, tap. That's not the liquid. That's Orochimaru's feet. He looks at me impatiently, expectantly, "Done yet?" Apparently he wants to discuss my teammate.

I don't say a word.

Instead, Fox does. "Y-Y-Yi-Yimang..." Whimpering. Stuttering. Crying. The liquid drools over his chin. "H-Help... me..." Orochimaru is brutal. Produces the second arm from thin air. Now I know. The hand up Fox's rear is the right one. Orochimaru smacks him across the head with the left one.

"Shut up, or I'll disintegrate the arm in your ass, too." He paused. "Along with your ass."

I blink, instead. Scratch that. I have no idea which arm is inside of Fox right now. Orochimaru looks over at me:

"We... played a game."

"Dangerous game."

Fox lies on the ground, unmoving. Unnatural movements of his chest. How is he conscious?

"I have... a proposition for you, ANBU captain." He smiles. It's a horrifying smile. He knows I can't say no - to whatever it is. "I'll play a game with you, too. This one," he drawls, dragging the finger of the arm he's holding across Fox's face, "lost. Too soon. Too easily. I want a challenge."

I swallow. Dear Konoha, I really need water. "...and what if -"

A blinding movement. I will my head to my shoulder. Kusanagi flings past me, the blade extending before crashing into the wall behind me. "Or," he says, smiling thinly, "you can die. With the rest of your team."

I don't argue anymore. He's glad. He takes my silence as acceptance. Damn bastard. "You will have... four chances." He holds up the arm. I still can't tell if it's Fox's or not. "Two arms, two legs. Four chances. Four strikes," his voice slithers on the last word, "and you're out." His foot is poised over Fox's head.

"Don't." My voice doesn't waver.

The foot goes down. Sickening, crushing. Surprising. The sound is wet. I wouldn't know. I don't make it a habit to crush people's skulls. I don't look away. Fox is a mess. Then again, so is Yugao. So is Rabbit. I will be too, by the time it's all over.

"So. Will you, mighty ANBU captain, accept...?"

I narrow my eyes. Curse again. Piece of shit. "What's the game?"

"That," he says, laughing softly, "is a wonderful question." He's next to me in a flash. The katana is poised over the wound he made. The room darkens. Uzumaki give me strength.

"Resist. Don't make a sound... Or you might find yourself on strike four in seconds." The blade sinks back into the flesh. Grit my teeth. Clear my head. Focus. Focus. Focus! The one uneven spot on the ground. Yes. I can do this. The blade twists, turns like a worm burrowing into the ground. Silence, save for my now uneven breathing. The blade goes all the way through. A soft thunk as steel meets wood. For crying out loud - only, I can't - the guy really wants to kill me. I wonder if this is what Ibiki meant by torture - only there's no interrogation involved.